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This interview with historian David McCullough is fascinating, first because he’s fascinating. (The combination of that mind with that voice and that manner is mesmerizing to me.) He is an award-winning author—the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Award, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and others—especially for his biographies of the Panama Canal and of Presidents Harry S. Truman and John Adams. Less importantly, he’s the narrator from Seabiscuit; more importantly, perhaps, he’s the father of the “You’re not special” commencement-speech-giver. Bravo, dad.

The following interview is worth the few minutes it takes to watch. Don’t miss the last question, where a world-class historian takes a long-term view of our use of time. Yes, time. Ouch. “Teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom” (Psalm 90:12).